This week it’s obvious that fall is soon arriving. Sturgis Rally has come and gone, the county fair was this week and most mornings have been cool enough for a jacket. I love this time of year, back-to-school, fresh garden produce and chokecherries!
A couple of weekends ago Jake and I went chokecherry pickin’. This season’s crop was a bumper. In two short hours we managed to fill a 5-gallon pail with moving more then about 30 feet from where we started. Usually 5 gallons would take at least half a day. Of course, the fact that they are so dry and bitter means there’s no risk of eating as much as you pick!
We spent the second week of the Olympics washing and sorting chokecherries with stems from those without. Tedious might be a bit of an understatement but tradition will make you do funny things. Chokecherry pie is something that has been handed down on my mom’s side of the family. Most people don’t know what a chokecherry is but I can’t remember a time in my life where we didn’t eat them.
Last weekend was a visit to the in-laws and along the chokecherries went. They needed canned and I wasn’t about to let them go bad after all that work! My mom and grandma have always used a cherry pitter to get the seeds out so I borrowed the pitter that has been handed down figuring that was the way to go. After four or five frustrating cups that resulted in a mess of pulp and pits in a pile together I resorted so pitting them by hand. Oh my! My hands still have funny purple streaks a week later.
Finally we were able to get to the important part, Jake, his mom and I had separated enough meat to can 3 quarts of chokecherry pie filling which is about 3 pies. This winter I’ll mix this concoction with some tapioca, sugar, almond extract and a whole lot of love to make some incredibly yummy pies!
Here’s Grandma’s Chokecherry Pie Recipe:
Use 4 cups fruit, 3 Tbsp tapioca, 1 1/2 c. sugar (may want more sugar because chokecherries are sour), and 1/4 tsp. almond extract. Mix fruit (& juice) tapioca, sugar and flavoring in a bowl. Let stand 15 minutes. Line 9” pie plate with pie crust. Fill with fruit mixture. Cot with 1 Tbsp. butter. Cover with top crust; seal and flute edges. Cut several slits in crust. Bake in preheated oven at 400 degrees for 45 to 50 min. or until juices form bubbles that burst slowly. Cool. Makes 8 servings.
